Kevin Lavery

Kevin Lavery is a general assignment news reporter and produces news features and interviews for Current State. He's also an alternate local host on NPR's "Morning Edition."

Prior to coming to WKAR in 2006, Lavery was a reporter at KWMU in St. Louis, Missouri, covering local politics, government, and biotechnology issues.

Lavery's journalism career began in the Navy. He studied journalism at Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indiana; worked as news director and television producer for American Forces Network-Japan; and served in Antarctica as radio program director at the McMurdo Station Research Facility on Ross Island.

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East Lansing, MI – Civic leaders in East Lansing are appealing to residents to renovate a playground in a popular city park. They've set an ambitious fundraising goal.

In 1995, East Lansing residents built a playground in Patriarche Park. It was later realized that the pressure-treated wood contained levels of arsenic. No children are known to have been injured, but now civic leaders are spearheading an effort to raise $400,000 over the coming year to replace the equipment with safer materials.

Organizers in Lansing are counting down to April, when the city will hold its inaugural marathon.

The Lansing Marathon will take place April 22 and cover a standard 26.2 mile course. The race will start outside the Accident Fund Insurance building in downtown Lansing, cross into East Lansing near Michigan State University, turn south to Holt, back into Lansing via Potter Park and end at the Capitol. Race director Owen Anderson says he's studied marathons in similarly sized communities, and finds they bring strong economic benefits.

EATON RAPIDS, MI (WKAR) - Plans are underway to build a new foundry in mid-Michigan that will make components for wind turbines. Business and civic leaders say the plan will create about 200 new jobs for the region.

Dowding Industries and Astraeus Wind Energy make wind turbines in Eaton Rapids. The foundry that will be located at the plant will cast the 20-ton hubs that attach to the blades.